A Short History

We first ran the RAC Attack last year at Collaborate in Denver. On the first day of Collaborate we heard that one of the computer labs was going to be sitting empty for several hours on Wednesday. Being such a fervent believer in hands-on learning, this sounded like a terrible waste! So at the last minute we arranged to deliver the RAC Attack hands-on lab during the open slot. If I remember right, we had something like 20 people and everyone seemed to really come away having learned something new. The lab focused on getting a running system.

In August when we ran RAC Attack as a standalone workshop in Chicago. In addition to having several excellent speakers, we dramatically expanded the scope of the lab to include topics like backup & recovery, services, and clusterware. During the full day allocated, only a few people completed every possible exercise.

Five Reasons To Sign Up

This year at Collaborate we’re doing it again. The lab will again be expanded and improved when we bring it to Orlando. Furthermore, I’m taking requests – if there’s a topic you’d like to learn about then leave a comment and I’ll try to get it included! I’m not sure how quickly the session will fill, but I know that there are a limited number of seats – so you should sign up soon.

Here are five reasons I think you should come:

Get exposure to and practice on all of the latest software, including VMware Server 2.0.1, Oracle Enterprise Linux (same as RedHat) 5.3, and Oracle RAC 11.1.0.7

There are hands-on challenges for every experience level. Meticulous step-by-step guide for beginners (with the choice to skip difficult steps), start-from-scratch or instant running environment for masters.

Learn from professionals with years of RAC experience. Several of us will be on-hand to answer questions and assist with the labs. If you have never touched a cluster database then we are here to help you complete the labs and understand what you’re doing!

Choose your own adventure. ASM or OCFS2. Parallel SQL or clusterware callouts. Got something specific you want to learn about? Leave a comment and I’ll try to get it included.

Walk out with a lab binder that tells you how to do it all on your own laptop after you get home. It won’t be possible to finish all the labs during the timeslot we have at Collaborate, but you can finish them later!

Finances are tight and many companies are cutting training budgets – but remember that generally speaking, Collaborate is one of the best value opportunities for Oracle training that’s available in the United States. You have world-class educational sessions and networking opportunities, complimented by top notch deep-dive university seminars such as RAC Attack. (Well… I’m a little biased about this session!) And with a slightly greater degree of independence you won’t just hear the corporate messages – it’ll be a little easier to find real-life users telling the great, the good, the bad and the ugly.